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My name is Raelyn. I've been day trading for almost 3 years... the truth is I've lost more than I've gained, I learned 7 different strategies and failed at all of them, my husband (who is also a trader) thinks I'm a losing gambler, I spent thousands of dollars trying to find the "holy grail", and I lack any sense of discipline, emotional control, and trading definition. I've made more mistakes than I can count and the more I continue on this path, the further I feel from my goals. Let's just say it out loud, yes I'm human.
That being said, here I am starting my first thread on futures.io (formerly BMT) and second guessing if I should even being doing this... but at the rate I'm going, I have to make a change and listen to those around me saying journaling, emotional reflection, and chart reviewing are the only way to success.
I realized one major thing over the last 3 years, whatever I'm doing isn't working. So late last night I spent my time building a business/trading plan which included my trading/study hours, my strategies and rules, my entry plan, my trade and risk management plan, and my exit plan (whether target or stop). Now comes the hardest part, consistent execution and staying disciplined. Discipline has not been a word found heavily used in my vocabulary other than at my "day job" so I think it'll be a rough habit to enforce. But the one thing that's driving me to do this is my son. If I plan to expect nothing but the best from him then I need to do the same and I need to be better for him. So here I go guys... Raelyn's Trading Journal and Review Forum has begun.
Today's trade stats: 5 trades on the NQ (over traded according to the rules in my business/trading plan)
4 losing trades, 1 winner.
- First trade Entry: Entered long thinking it was holding support 4077-4078, I had a 3 to 1 profit potential, and I took it long as it popped off the support level
- First trade Management: Kept stop below previous swing low until it made a higher high
- First trade Exit: Stop out, reflushed down to 4070
- Things to do differently: wait for a retest of the support level before going long, put stop actually below the stop, think about the pullback into the short (not having a long bias)
- Second trade Entry: Entered long again thinking the market flushed out all the shorters and was ready for a trend change. Profit was available for 2 to 1.
- Second trade Management: As the market progressed, I moved my target to an unrealistic area the high of the day and my stop was placed below the swing low
- Second trade Exit: Stop out, reflushed to 4066
- Things to do differently: keep target in place (at 5 pts), think about the pullback into the short (not having a long bias)
- Third trade Entry: Look it long again thinking it was holding the swing low around 4074-4075 and would create a double bottom possibly though the risk to reward was not on my brain at the time
- Third trade Management: My target was placed again in an unrealistic spot at the high of the day and I stretched my stop out a bit further to accommodate another possible flush at 4070 (S level)
- Third trade Exit: Stopped at as the market blew through that S level at 4070 and dropped to 4066 then quickly reversed there after but I was already out.
- Things to do differently: Be a bit more patient between trade, pay more attention to the risk versus reward as well as the opposing trend, don't place your target in ridiculously unrealistic areas.
- Fourth trade Entry: Saw the large tail on the flushed candle and decided "this was the one" after all my other stop outs, risk to reward was 3 to 1
- Fourth trade Management: Placed my stop below that tail of the previous flushing candle, place target at the 4080.50 level or the swing high, trailed stop as trade made higher highs
- Fourth trade Exit: Stop out at 4pts when I couldve had 9 pts at the top of the move (about 1 pt away from my target), but was getting greedy wanting more money
- Things to do differently: place my target a little below the swing high (knowing I wont catch the top) and take profit when it is available to me not wishing for and unrealistic more, kept stop below swing low so it doesnt take me out on a retest of an S level
- Fifth trade Entry: Was so angry that the previous trade too me out of more possible money, quickly got back in not thinking about anything other than the money at that point.
- Fifth trade Management: Placed my stop below the previous swing lows, target at the same unrealistic area at 4088 where I've been hoping the market will hit
- Fifth trade Exit: Stop out as it flushed to retest the low of the day around 4070 before reversing to higher highs.
- Things to do differently: don't trade emotionally because you got stopped out
Missed opportunities:
- Short at 6:57 PST after 2 wave correction on the 1M, 4 to 1 risk to reward ratio
- Retested target area at 7:24-7:25 on my third trade (possible 8pt trade, but was greedy for more)
- Long at 7:49-7:50 PST one the market retested a level that was previously tested 3x in the same morning and held and created a higher low (possible 10 pt profit so about 3 to 1 risk to reward)
Emotional status:
- There I go, another failed day with more losses than gains and that's not surprising since this is the first trade review I've done in about 6 months. Without the studying and discipline I'm just another gambler. But while it feels terrible to know how badly I sucked today, it also feels okay to know why and what I could've done differently. I'm having unrealistic expectations of the market and only I control what I do or don't do. Emotional status = non-suicidal, but pretty irritable. Do better Raelyn, do better.
Today's trade stats: 4 trades, 3 stop outs, 1 winner, continuously trying to long a heavy and fast falling short trend
- First trade Entry: took it long as it came into 4030 support
- First trade Management: placed stop below 4030, target was placed at 4045 resistance
- First trade Exit: took a 1 pt close out due to heavy falling action
- Things to do differently: either take available 3 points off first move, or wait for a retest of the low to have more on the upside if any (especially since it was heavy downside)
- Second trade Entry: took it long thinking it was retesting the 4030 support area
- Second trade Management: placed stop below 4030 at 4029.25, target same at 4045 resistance
- Second trade Exit: got stopped out as it flushed further down
- Things to do differently: waited to see how the retest would react
- Third trade Entry: took it long again thinking it was yet again retesting the lows at 4030
- Third trade Management: stop placed below previous swing low at 4026.25
- Third trade Exit: stop out because it flushed yet again
- Things to do differently: wait until the strong moving trend creates a sideways slowing pattern before attempting to reverse it
- Fourth trade Entry: took it long yet again thinking it was holding 4030 support
- Fourth trade Management: target was placed at 4050 instead because I wanted to make up for my losses (even though I was SIM trading). stop was placed below the low and close popular number 25's, at 4024.25
- Fourth trade Exit: stopped out even after profit presented it self (4 pts, 5 pts, 4 pts, 3pts).
- Things to do differently: leave my target at 5 pts, take my target at 5 pts.
Missed opportunities:
- any possibly entries on the downtrend (I dont really see an entry pattern that I usually look for, but it was falling fast)
- 2 wave correction into the down trend, couldve taken it short around the retest of 4035 after 7:30.
Emotional status:
- Had another red day, but a little less trading than the day before and a little more focused. Still impatient, still over trading, but still learning.
I don't say you have to trade the same way, but it helps a great deal on learning better how the markets behave - not because you just dont know but because everytime you are sitting live in front of it, you are thinking "trading" not "watching". At least that's how it was for me, could observe much more open when just following those videos...
Good luck on your journey - the self-discipline is the hardest part for sure.
Welcome to futures.io (formerly BMT), Starting a journal is a good first step into holding yourself accountable, tracking your decisions, actions, thoughts and results and will go a long way into helping identify areas that work and others that don't but you will only get out what you put in so be as honest as you like, ask questions if you have any and don't be afraid of admitting mistakes there are plenty of people on this forum who have been there done that got the T-shirt and are willing to offer advice or point people in the right direction.
If you don't mind I have some questions and thoughts.
Each of these on there own pose a threat to the trading account and to the psychology of someone trying to improve, A journal is a step in the right direction to tracking what's going on but do you have a plan to tackle these?
I don't mean to be negative, 7 strategies in 3 years is quite a lot, I can only speak from experience but I have been trading on and off for 10 years and probably tried more strats than I can shake a stick at. It's only in the last 18 months or so that I have knuckled down taken it seriously and stuck with a method that I have spent 1000s of hours observing, hypothesising, defining, testing and refining, and it's a lot lot harder than I ever thought it would be.
I have spent a lot of time recently reflecting on my trading history and the conclusion I have come to is that most strategies would have worked if I had the discipline, emotional control and had put in the work required and gave it time to understand how it worked but without instant results out of the box it is easy to look for something else.
So what am I hinting at, when it comes to definition have you taken the time to observe your ideas at work, do you identify concepts that might aid or hinder a trade or setup, doing this without having money on the line can be a real eye opener once you remove the emotional bias.
Are you live or sim? If you are live I would suggest you stop, until you can define your trading criteria, reign in the aspects of your emotions that hinder progress and enforce discipline you may only feed the bad habits that give you so much trouble.
Unfortunately a trading plan does not change things overnight it's a long haul that will test you on a daily basis as I am sure you know.
At the end of this day this is your journal to do as you please, you don't have to answer to anyone but yourself. There are people on here far smarter than me that will give better advice, hints and tips. There are journals out there where people have been where you are and are now where you might hope to find yourself someday, they tracked there struggles, they adapted they learned, some even fell by the wayside, but the overall story is that trading can be a tough nut to crack.
